Transition: changing old habits.

Abstract

Transitioning patients from pediatric to adult care is an issue of increasing concern, especially when it involves children with chronic conditions that are congenital or complex.1 Care of these children often requires the special expertise of pediatric subspecialists in addition to ongoing primary care. Pediatric specialists and generalists anticipate that patients will age out of their care, yet many adult medicine practitioners do not feel comfortable assuming responsibility for young adults chronically ill with pediatric disorders. A growing array of strategies and interventions are being designed to facilitate this transition, yet they all may not be necessary. The conclusion that a transition to adult care is indicated is generally based on traditional age cutoffs rather than science. Although it would be a significant change, pediatric subspecialists could reframe their services as condition-specific rather than age-specific care and continue to provide care to their aging patients over the life course in conjunction with adult primary care physicians. There is no consensus on the appropriate upper age of pediatricians’ patients or when youths become adults. Adulthood is more a social construct than a developmental stage. It has no readily identifiable markers such as those that define puberty, the beginning of adolescence. As a socially defined stage of life, there exists great variability about who is considered legally an adult. Even the assumption of “adult” responsibilities, that is, responsibility for meeting one’s own basic needs, does not consistently signify adulthood, although perhaps success at that endeavor would count as being an adult. Imaging studies of the brain demonstrate that adult brain size, especially that of the frontal cortex, is attained between the … Address correspondence to Edward L. Schor, MD, The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, 400 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 340, Palo Alto, CA 94301. E-mail: edward.schor{at}lpfch.org